The Snail on the Step - The Story of a Girl Who Wanted to Write

Erik Ireland (0:00)

Hi, I'm Erik. The story you're about to hear is different from what you'll find on most sleep podcasts. It's intentionally created to help you rest deeply by calming your thinking mind as it guides you back to yourself. And if you'd like to go even deeper, you'll find lots of resources on my website at erikireland.com. The ads in the beginning of the podcast support my work and keep this podcast free. You'll never hear any ads after the story starts, but if you'd rather hear none at all, just check the show notes for the link to the premium version. Thank you so much for your support. Hello, friend. Welcome back to Listen To Sleep. Stories to calm your thinking mind and help you find your way back to yourself. This week, I got an email from a listener who listens to these stories at bedtime with his daughter. And she has just started to love reading, and they wanted to know whether the stories were available as a book so she could read them for herself. Well, they aren't at least not yet. Part of the reason is that I don't write all of them. Some come from the public domain. Some I write myself. Some I write with others. And some are written by other people entirely. Maybe someday I'll gather a few of my favorites into a volume or two. Which ones would you want in there? If you'd like to tell me, you can join my email group at listentosleep.com and hit reply to any of my emails. It's free, and when you join, you'll also get my sleep audio set with some sleep tips, a couple of recordings of the creek behind the cabin, and one of my favorite audiobooks I've recorded for you. Their email got me thinking about what it was like to be that age. When a book could carry you off so completely that you looked up afterward, I was surprised to find yourself back in your own room. So tonight's story is about a girl named Noor who has just learned to read all by herself and wants to write a story of her own. It's about a blue notebook, a patient school librarian, a little brother who can't sleep, and a snail on a back step who is in no hurry at all. If there's a young reader in your life, this one's for them too. Before we get started, a quick word. If you're enjoying these stories and want to support what I do here, you can do that by joining Listen To Sleep Plus. It gives you access to over 500 episodes ad-free, including bonus episodes and early releases. Your support really does make a huge difference. And you can learn more about all the great perks supporters get at listentosleep.com/support.

There's a link in the show notes.

Let's take a deep breath. In.

And out.

Just letting go of the day, feeling the weight of gravity pulling you deep down into the mattress. Another deep breath in.

Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to be. This is your time, quiet time. One more deep breath in with me.

And out.

If you get tired while I'm reading to you, that's okay. Just let yourself drift off.

The Snail on the Step.

Noor read the last page of the book slowly, because she knew it was the last one. She was in the reading corner of the school library, sunk deep in the green bean bag by the window. It was Thursday, and Thursday was Library Day for the second grade. All around her, the room was busy. Chairs scraped. Someone at the computers was whispering too loudly. Mrs. Bell's stamp went thunk, thunk at the front desk, as children checked out their books. Noor heard none of it. She was standing at the edge of a snowy field, with a small red fox. The fox had carried the moon on its back all the way across the forest, through the thorn hedge and over the frozen river. And now it was time to let the moon go. Noor held her breath. The fox lowered its head. The moon rose, slow and white, back into the sky where it belonged. And the whole field turned to silver.

She could feel the cold coming up through her boots. She could hear the fox breathing. Small, quick breaths that made clouds in the air. Somewhere behind them was the dark forest they had come through together. And she did not need to look back to know it was there.

The End Noor looked up. The library seemed strange. It was too bright, and the windows were in the wrong places. Her left foot had fallen asleep, and she had not noticed it happening. For a moment, she was not quite sure which place was real, the snowy field or the beanbag. And she sat very still while the room slowly became the library again.